intro.
This week the OUTSIDELEFT Week in Music turns by turn, serious. Serious sounds, serious sentiments. These are the dudes that have gotten us though it... Ancient Champion (4), Jay Lewis (3), Toon Traveller (3), LamontPaul (2), DJ Fuzzyfelt (1), Lee Paul (1), Katherine Pargeter (1), John Robinson (1), Alan Rider (5). I don't have to write that the number of individual reviews they have contributed is in parenthesis, do I? If I had to do that for you please stop reading, Conde Nasty's mens music as a lifestyle magazine Pitchfork is this way→. Imagine it's Friday morning and new music is still being shoehorned into your pained ears, begging for inclusion. You mention that some of it can come back and try again next week - we don't keep to the same calendar as anyone else. Then you add the code that divides the reviews into three columns because you vaguely remember inky music papers had columns of reviews (non-phone view only), then comes the code that drops in the random vivid backgrounds. Then you spend a while trying to access the media account that holds the hi-res of the artist image you want to use. You fail. Software ostensibly designed to speed productivity thwarts you. You choose something else. You consider whether this organisation should use Slack→, that's not an affiliate link, but there is a pile of great writing to publish maybe Slack could help keep that organised a little better. What if I wasn't here? You'd like to work on a short story. You have that whole other career to consider and then someone says, "don't forget to make the intro more upbeat this time because you're always moaning about how shit every record you ever hear is." So you end up doing that. Taking this apart again and again until it is relentlessly upbeat. Happy now? Then you adjust the number of words you drop here, to balance the columns a bit better. Really. Then you apply your eyedrops for your conjunctivitis. It's another OUTSIDELEFT Week in Music. For sure.
singles
by Ancient Champion
A sound observer of sound of course, The Last Words of Sam Cooke is a rockin' banger of a track, taken from Barry Adamson's tenth solo LP 'Cut To Black’ due in May. The musical influences that formed an escape route from a tough childhood to here, revealed in his 2021 memoir ‘Up Above The City, Down Beneath The Stars’ are excitingly present, all that jazz, and the John Barry that he'd found in his father's record collection too. Adamson's career is as storied as they come... Magazine, The Birthday Party and The Bad Seeds. From his first solo album, ‘Moss Side Story’ in 1989 to the Last Words of Sam Cooke. What a tale told so far.
by Toon Traveller
Just what the world needs someone who plays the same guitar, the same way as Coldplay's fingers man, same lines, same guitar riffs, similar pained, harmony vocals all a bit sanctimonious, even smug. God, even the same song structure, and melody, their drop into the middle eight, the far, far, away, whimsical 'up the frets guitar solo'. oh so tasteful 'slide' ending. If you can't wait for a new Coldplay album this could be enough to slake that thirst for Coldplay. But not quite good enough to be seen as a 'cast off' track. It's sounds a bit like a bad TV theme too. Very well played, very familiar, format rock. Without glancing up from their own screen someone said "is that an episode of Gogglebox just starting."
by DJ Fuzzyfelt
Returning after a while away North West Wales four piece return with a lovely piece of modern psyche that sticks in your head long after it finishes which is far too soon.Great band live to so if you want to see them soonish they'll be gracing one of the many stages at Wrexham's excellent Focus Wales Festival in May alongside the likes of Adwaith, Gillie, Georgia Ruth, Angharad, Gintis and newcomers such as Spiritualized and Deerhoof.
by John Robinson
Dea Matrona are well behaved young ladies from Ireland who cranked out covers of punk and rock songs as buskers before taking to the stage, appearing in interviews on Irish tv as something positioned between the Corrs and the Sugababes with riffs. Black Rain, from their forthcoming debut album, begins perilously close to the swampy blues of Black Velvet, but the chorus takes it in a different, still rather familiar, direction. They are hard working, clearly, ambitious and have taken to a somewhat raunchier image but this still lacks any real bite. As they say themselves on the album press release "we’ll never really know who we are or what we want to say". That may be their downfall.
by Alan Rider
Margot Day reminds me very much of all the witchy poo types that I used to see all the time at various Pagan Federation/Which Fest events in London selling velvet cloaks or running workshops on how to make spells. Like a few of them she looks like she is giving this music thing a go, but is a bit ill at ease doing it, as its not really her natural talent. That is reflected in the song, which isn't very good. The video looked like it was fun to make though and I love those twirly flame things!
by Ancient Champion
From the imminently imminent Tiger's Blood LP, Waxahatchee's massively anticipated follow up to Saint Cloud. We have a review of the LP in our jacket pocket held over until the week the record is released. Next week, I think. See, sometimes we can do as we are asked. Ya'll will hear about it then.
by LamontPaul
Aayushi's intimate and tender folk-pop, borne aloft from the memories and magic of a mother-child bond is simply gorgeous, of course. Palm of the Sea's spare instrumentation - mainly acoustic guitar and a smattering of bass and perhaps marimba, is the perfect foil for the presence of Aayushi's voice. As ever, I just can't fathom why this woman isn't a Six Music stalwart. She is so certainly doing some thing all entirely her own .
by Alan Rider
" I believe in Gnomes, though I'll never fit inside their homes". Could this herald the beginning of a whole new Gnome Rock genre? I wouldn't bet against that. This is a bit of fun. You know, I reckon I might believe in gnomes too. There is a chap I see buying crisps and beer in the corner shop occasionally who I'm sure is one.
by Toon Traveller
It's one of those modern male pop vulnerable pop voices, contemporary very pop soul. Mid-paced, semi-falsetto, it's easy humm along, minor key sounds, pleading voice. All he wants "a little dose of love", There's a heartache pleading in the vocal. It's safe, it's familiar, it's hard to dislike, or like all that much. Perhaps live he may be a gospelly showstopper. Blame the record company, blame the producer, blame the Black Pumas, blame Gabriels, don't blame the piano player and don't blame Lee Lewis. This is professional entertainment now. Well sung and well played and sincere and so what?
by Toon Traveller
Great slapped fatback Southern Soul Bass opening, slice of bacon crisp drums, and a one of those lived it, seen it, loved it, voices. Modern Southern Soul. There's some absolutely wonderfully delicious playing here, keys and strings that flutter with a summer feel. Sounds of crickets, songbirds and smells of Bar-B-Qs pervade.
by LamontPaul
I'd watched Regina King's appearance on American breakfast Tv where she discussed her son taking his own life and just how much she loved being his mom. She talked about his choices. And then I read Sarah Wildman's piece about losing her teenage daughter in the NY Times, and I'd also been feeling a little shaken by several events that literallty wrote a different future in life than the one I had lazily assumed I was drifting towards. And then this from Tierra Whack, whom I consider to be one of the more significant artists in rap and more broadly American entertainment right now singing about loss. Needed for perspective.
ep's
by Katherine Pargeter
I'll admit to being a little skeptical when I heard that these, admittedly rather fine, pop performers were taking on the huge and demanding roles (Shears as Emcee, Self Esteem/Rebecca Lucy Taylor as Sally Bowles) in 'Cabaret', but this is remarkable! It is of course the title track where Taylor inhabits all of the musical moods with aplomb, you'd think that she came from an acting background. And yes, she has the vocal range needed to carry it off. Liza would approve!
lp's
ZERO s
by Jay Lewis
It may only be March, but Jay has an early nomination for worst album of the year.
by Alan Rider
Compiled from the contents of a box of old demo cassettes unearthed in his Californian storage locker, digitised, re-mastered and issued as a three album box set, this is exactly what it sounds like; a mixed bag of ideas, demos, and stripped down prototypes from over the years. Some tracks are a bit rough around the edges and most are largely David strumming away on an acoustic guitar and singing into a tape recorder. Whether any of these would have been issued without his track record as a successful musician is debatable. There are standouts (the opener 'Punishment By Roses' and the single 'Oh No! Not Another Songwriter!'), but much falls into the 'for enthusiasts and collectors/completists only' camp, even with the added incentive for the 'super deluxe' version of the inclusion of one of the actual original demo cassettes this is taken from. It is an interesting peek into the songwriting process from someone who is notoriously prolific and the fact that he is willing to expose these 'warts n'all' recordings to public scrutiny demonstrate a lack of artifice that will become clear in his upcoming interview with Outsideleft.
by Alan Rider
Think of Swedish music and what springs to mind? The Cardigans?, Hives?, Ace of Base?, Nenah Cherry?, Goat, maybe even Hard Rock band Thundermother we reviewed a few weeks back? Or even that band beginning with 'A' that won Eurovision once? Well, it looks like you will have to add Les Big Byrd to that list now. They've been building up to this for a while now, but 'Diamonds, Rhinestones and Hard Rain' is a definitive statement that they have arrived. That's clear from the outset, with the epic 10 minute opener 'Mareld', the surf psyche of the title track, and the Spiritualized-esque instrumental trip of ‘Lycka Till På Färden’ All are clear statements of intent. Spacey and all encompassing, Les Big Byrd's fourth album sees the band take to the air in a trippy, droney, swirling, whirling, expansive head fuck, shimmering with wonderfully echoing beats and trips where everything falls into place. The title track is probably the most conventional song on the album, the rest being mainly instrumental, Hawkwind style workouts, evolving and opening like a psychedelic field of flowers. Sunday mornings were made for this. As I've said of LBB before, save yourself money on drugs and overdose on this instead. We all need to escape from reality these days, and this is an escape room you won't want to find the exit door from. You can find out more about Les Big Byrd in our exclusive interview with them here.
Diamonds, Rhinestones and Hard Rain is let out to play on Chimp Limbs on March 22nd. Order it here
so... you got anything else?
by Alan Rider
Roaming the streets on their tandem bike, young french post-punk musicians Micka and Pierre are filled with despair as they desperately search for a crowd to play to. A few of us will recognise that feeling! Great 22 minute film featuring edgy post-punk two piece Gwendoline. So not really a music release, but I had to draw this to your attention somehow.
by Jay Lewis
I was deeply immersed in The Waterboys' recent '1985' box set when I heard the tragic news of the death of Karl Wallinger. The 93 track collection I was listening to is based around the band's grand 'This is the Sea' album - and Wallingers' distinctive keyboard melodies are all over it, he was integral to their illustrious 'Big Music' phase. And, as you hear 'The Whole of the Moon' being developed from the piano and vocal demos to the final version we all know, it's Wallinger that's alongside Mike Scott.
Of the handful of meticulously crafted albums Wallinger subsequently made as World Party, it's their second - 'Goodbye Jumbo' that defined them. A dizzying array of great pop influences (Beatles, Prince, Sly Stone, Dylan...), and some contemporary environmental concerns (the clue is in the album's title and sleeve!) It is glorious. 'Put Message in the Box' may be the record's finest moment, a song that, despite hearing it (possibly) thousands of times, still excites, surprises, and still moves me. A masterpiece.
by Ancient Champion
Oh come on, I can only give Noname 5 hearts?
by Lee Paul
India Arie's Brown Skin from the LP Acoustic Soul... Age old now, a still sort of groundbreaking arrangement of acoustic soul sounds and beats.
by Ancient Champion
The most excited band in the world working up a sweat. I love them.
essential info
The previous Week in Music is here→
